A position on the Stuttgart School District Board of Directors started his life in the world of public service. Current Stuttgart District Judge J.W. Green then moved on to hold the Stuttgart city treasurer position, and on to Stuttgart city attorney, prosecuting attorney and finally 14 years ago he settled into the seat of Stuttgart District Judge.

He will be giving up the seat come Jan. 1 but feels he has no regrets from his time as a lawyer on to his time as a judge.

“And all through those years I could practice law and of course I did up into the last few years,“ Green explained. “There is a different perspective between being a prosecutor and a defense lawyer and there is certainly a bigger one when you sit on the bench as a judge.”

He said he might not have realized it, but he was put in a position to make decisions that would effect people’s lives.

“You have to make decisions concerning those who stand before you and the results of how that will effect the ones that are not even there,” he said. “So you give thought on what can be done in the community to help. And there have been things that have been done that have really helped, but there are still some sad, sad things that exist out there. To me it’s heartbreaking to see a young person starting out in a way to waste their lives. I always tell them in the courtroom, and always have and honestly do so, there is not a family in that courtroom that has not been touched by drugs or alcohol — including my own.”

His family wasn’t even immune to it, he said solemnly.

“I’m not immune to it. But when I see young men and young women, especially young women, standing before me out there in drug cases that have subjected themselves to drugs and/or alcohol always thinking I’m living in the fast lane and I can quit any time I want to. Or marijuana is not addictive…it does not lead to anything else. I see them standing before me out there and those usually with methamphetamine after a few years you can see their complexion has changed, their teeth falling out and they are becoming a lot thinner,” he explains.

Most of those standing before him say it is alright for them to fool with marijuana, because adults fool with alcohol, Green said.

“Lets talk about the alcohol first. I have young ladies that stand before me that have been (brought in on) alcohol related charges. Most of the time the alcohol has been provided by some ol’ boy or they have been out to a clubhouse somewhere — a party that has not been policed — and they get picked up coming back in town. And I can assure those young ladies that when they drink or are involved with that alcohol they lose their ability to say no. Their ambitions have changed. There are things that happen, including pregnancies, that they wish would have never occurred and it all goes back to those alcoholic parties. And it goes back a lot of times to the parents that say ‘let them do whatever they want to as long as they aren’t bothering me,’” he believes.

Page 2 of 5 - On the drug bit, men will stand in front of him that have children they have brought into this world that they have never married the mother of the child. They don’t think enough of the child to give the child a name. They don’t support the mother, Green said.

“Oh they might take diapers over on Friday or jugs of milk or formula over, but they stand out in front of me and they are found guilty of drug related offenses and they are going to jail. Now most of them are not working to start with, most of them dressed pretty good and they drive pretty good vehicles...you know they are getting that money somewhere,” he explains.

But the man will go off to jail and they let that child that has been brought into the world be given to her mother or aunt.

“This is not black, this is not white, this is black and white,” Green said. “The grandmother has the child or some other family member has the child. Most of the time public assistance is involved. That dad goes to jail, he is not concerned with who is putting milk on the table or food on the table for those children. He is not concerned with who is putting clothes on their back. He is not concerned with who is putting a roof over their head. He is concerned about his drugs and to heck with every body else.”

Green has had men stand before him and have two or more women pregnant at the same time. The women would be fighting over who is the father of the child. The same attitude is taken toward every child, he said.

“I see young people, not necessarily young people but all people, stand out there before me and they are more concerned about protecting that drug pusher than they are helping their families and helping their communities,“ Green said. “They go to jail…that drug pusher does not go over to the home and provide food for those children. That drug pusher does not sooth the mother, family members and wipe the tears from their eyes and try to comfort them. That person goes to jail and they sit down there in that jail house. That drug pusher drives his pretty car and sits on the street corner and talks about what’s going on. And the day that person gets out of jail that drug pusher is there to give them a little freebie to get them started back on that some old thing.”

Men and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends will get into a fight and charges are filed — domestic battery charges.

Page 3 of 5 - “The person that is depending on the person or the salary from that person charged knows that that person may end up in jail and all of sudden love has bloomed again, because they don’t want to see that person go to jail,” Green said. “But if you just turn them loose and don’t hold them accountable then you are giving them a license to go around beating on people. Women deserve better than that. The men that are victims deserve better than that.”

The older people that live on the streets of this community do not need to be harassed by drug transactions taking place outside on the corner, Green said. They need to be permitted to go to sleep and sleep well at night with out worrying about a shot coming through their house.

“These are the things that weigh heavy on my mind since I have been there,“ he said. “People will completely disrespect people of the law and law authority. Who will lie, lie, lie and lie in an effort to avoid their responsibilities,” he said.

Green has been practicing law since November of 1964; he has witnessed and seen a lot.

“I am very honored, was very honored for the trust that people placed in me to be their elected judge. And I wish the very best for Judge (Jeremy) Bueker as he takes the bench, because it is not an easy job,” Green said. “But the burden of seeing all this go on. Why should we have to have a police force? And if you go to that courtroom it is the same people in most cases over and over again.”

Now Green will see some people that come before the court, bless their hearts, he said, they just can’t deal with everything in their life. Sometimes taking a person off the streets is providing a roof over their head, a bed to sleep in and meals.

“My favorite part is just serving the public, trying to do what’s right. I have never worried about what people thought of me. I just happen to be the judge sitting up there and there should be respect in that courtroom,” he said. “We have had good prosecutors, we have had good city attorneys, we’ve had good and not-so-good police officers at times. A lot of times it all goes back to supervision, but for the most part it has been good. I have never had anyone from a city point of view try and influence me one way or the other on a decision, because they knew it would do no good.”

He said he has tried to help people and has tried to be compassionate, but at the same token there has to be accountability.

Page 4 of 5 - “When you give somebody a fine, and you give them the opportunity to pay that fine and they come in and test positive for drugs they’re not giving a good faith effort to pay their fine. They are spending that money on drugs. They don’t deserve to be on the street,” he said. “You have somebody and you give them time to get their fine paid, they don’t pay it, the only way you can enforce it, to get their attention, is the threat of jail time. Now it has been my policy that if a person was trying I had three things basically if they came in asking for additional days to pay their fine: Have you stayed out of trouble? Have you made a good faith effort to pay? And can you pass the drug test? And sometimes in being a judge we just have to protect those old folks and people that can not protect themselves.”

It has been a good run — 48 years. He has enjoyed every bit of it, he said, and is very thankful to Arthur Macom and Bill Moorehead for giving him a chance to come to Stuttgart.

“I had law partners: Macom, Moorehead, Brad Green and myself. We lived out of the same bank account and never had a written agreement of any kind, never had a word of disagreement,” he said. “We have some fine lawyers in this town — some good ones. They do a good job representing their clients and that is what they are supposed to do as defense lawyers. A defense lawyer — as long as they are using ethical means with what he doing that is his obligation to do so.”

As he comes to the end of his term he feels he has no regrets.

“I’m happy to have served and very appreciative to Stuttgart and the Grand Prairie for giving me the opportunity over the years to raise a family and to be able to support them,” he said. “I am going to read the newspaper, guard the TV and work in the yard and go fishing some — I love to fish.”

Green, although he may miss some, wants to let people know who has been important in his life: Of course his wife and his children, he said first, but outside of that Macom, Moorehead, Brad Green, partners of his in the law practice, Henry Peacock and Abe Stanley.

“Some are now gone, we have a fine circuit judge in David Henry. We have a fine city attorney in Malcolm Smith. We have a fine prosecutor, in my opinion, in Robert Dittrich. People don’t understand Robert could have retired a long time ago, draw just about as much as he makes as prosecutor, but he stayed on and as far as I’m concerned has done a good job. He doesn’t have enough people to help him but that is city and county budgets,” Green said. Another person on the list — Dennis Molock.

Page 5 of 5 - Stuttgart has been good to him and he appreciates it.

“Others that have helped me were Garner Allen and his wife Jenny, Mary Humphrey…these were people at the newspaper. They were always very fair with me and I appreciate that very much,” he said. “And I’ll miss it. But it’s time and I’m glad to move on to the next step, thank you. And going through names one has a tendency to forget sometimes, but let me add some other names that have been very helpful to me like Rev. O’Neal, Mike Skinner, Booker Releford…those men helped me in this community tremendously and again I’m very appreciative to all these people.”

A reception honoring Green will be held at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Stuttgart Distrcit Courtroom, located 514 S. Main St. in Stuttgart.